Planners push case for waste burner despite health worries

COUNCILLORS are being urged to back plans for a multi-million pound waste incinerator to deal with household rubbish from two West Yorkshire local authorities.

Pennine Resource Recovery wants permission to build a recycling centre and waste burner on a site at Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, which is currently used as a council-run waste facility.

The £300m, 25-year private finance initiative scheme dealing with waste from Bradford and Calderdale will also include a visitor centre, mainly for the use of schools and colleges, and lead to the creation of nearly 70 jobs.

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The site is near houses and serious concerns have been raised by residents about chimney stack emissions, vermin, smells, dust and lorry movements.

There are also fears about the effect on a nearby caravan site used by travellers, particularly during the building phase.

A report on the plans will be discussed by members of the council’s regulatory and appeals committee, which meets on Thursday.

The report states that the plant will be able to handle up to 237,000 tonnes of waste per year.

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Some of it will be recycled and the rest – about 190,000 tonnes a year – will go into a “energy recovery facility” for burning. This process will generate electricity via a steam turbine.

The chimney will reach 75 metres high – about 250ft.

The report notes that the development will lead to an increase in air pollutants,but mostly from road traffic.

“Overall the predicted changes from the development are concluded as having no significant impact on air quality or human health,” the council report finds.

“The studies conclude that the levels are in keeping with the low level of risk to health that Defra and the Health Protection Agency have identified as being achievable by modern, well managed resource recovery facilities in the UK.”

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The developer has estimated that traffic will increase by up to 16 per cent at the peak of construction.

During the building work there will be increased noise, dust and odour, according to the report.

The developer has proposed several ideas to reduce the impact on residents during construction, including the construction of a solid barrier between the site and the neighbouring caravan site, which will be intended to reduce noise.

The council looked in detail at the potential impact on travellers as part of an assessment.

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This concluded there was a “medium” impact on the Mary Street travellers site, adding: “The mitigation and procedures... are considered sufficient to ensure all potential impacts of the proposed allocation of the site for a waste treatment facility on the identified demographic (gypsy and traveller) are avoided.”

The council said significant efforts have been made to ensure that the residents of the Mary Street travellers site are protected from the impacts of the proposals “as far as possible”.

The positive aspects of the plans “added weight” to the balance when considering the application, according to the council.

The positives, say the council, are:

The generation of 14.8MW of electricity from waste that would otherwise end up in landfill;

Recycling will increase;

The development will ‘act as a catalyst for regeneration’;

The “innovative” building will add to the cityscape;

It will create 300 temporary and 69 permanent jobs;

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There will be a visitor centre for residents of Calderdale and Bradford.

The council report urges councillors to give planning permission.

Meanwhile, plans for a waste incinerator at Allerton Park, North Yorkshire, will be discussed by the county council at a meeting tomorrow.

Campaigners have called for the scheme to be the subject of an independent public inquiry.